Sara Weller is a Non-Executive Director at Lloyds Banking Group and United Utilities plc. She also chairs the Planning Inspectorate, an executive agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government, and is on the Governing Council at Cambridge University and the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Sara brings an extensive business background to the role. She was Managing Director of Argos from 2004 to 2011 and previously held senior executive roles at J Sainsbury plc, Abbey National and Mars. She holds a First class Masters in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Welcoming the appointment, Secretary of State of the Department for Work and Pensions, Damian Green said:

Sara Weller has an excellent track record in business and a wealth of top tier board experience which I have no doubt she will bring to the role.

I’d like to thank Dame Clara for her dedication and hard work over the past 6 years. Her work has helped to improve the department’s governance as it delivers an ambitious programme of work, welfare, and pensions reforms.

Sara Weller said:

The work that DWP does touches customers at almost every stage of life.

As the department moves from reform to a process of embedding change, I look forward to bringing my expertise in business and strategy to the country’s biggest public service department.

The role of the board is to advise the department on performance, including agreeing key performance indicators. It also oversees operational issues, such as the operational and delivery implications of policy proposals, and the effective management of the department.

It exercises its role through influence and advice, and both supports and challenges the executive.

Members also scrutinise the progress and implementation of the business plan, and are involved in recruiting, appraising and ensuring appropriate succession planning of senior executives.

The board meets regularly with other non-executives across government to ensure departments learn from the successes and failures of comparable organisations.

All board members, including the lead, are appointed for a 3-year period.

Mr Spencer gave an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, effective from 4 April 2017, preventing him from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for the duration of the term.

Claim & Gain, with Mr Spencer as director, misled the public in sales calls regarding claims services offered, fees charged, outsourcing to third parties and cancellations. Services paid for by customers were not provided and fees were deducted from customers without their authorisation.

Claim & Gain engaged in unfair trading practices contrary to Regulation 22 of the Compensation (Claims Management Services) Regulations 2006 as authorised and regulated by the Ministry of Justice. Following an investigation and subsequent warnings from the Ministry of Justice, Mr Spencer failed to rectify the breaches and continued to mislead customers by taking ‘upfront’ fees from a further 149 customers.

Commenting on the disqualification, Robert Clarke, Investigations Group Leader at the Insolvency Service said:

The compensation regulations provide protection to the general public from unfair sales techniques by agents for companies operating within the claims management sector.

When company directors do not comply with legislation that is designed to protect customers and avoidable losses result, The Insolvency Service will seek lengthy periods of disqualification. This should serve as a warning to other directors who may feel tempted to breach customer protection legislation. The Insolvency Service will rigorously pursue directors who deliberately mislead and breach the trust of customers.

The Insolvency Service is grateful for the assistance provided by the Ministry of Justice, Trading Standards and the Legal Ombudsman.

Notes to editors

Claim & Gain (CRN 07799165) was placed into Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) on 19 March 2015 with a deficiency of £650,876. The company, which was incorporated on 5 October 2011, traded in claims management: cold calling members of the public and offering claims management services including mis-sold payment protection insurance, mortgages and packaged bank accounts. Claim & Gain traded from 3rd Floor, Princess House, Princess Way, Swansea, SA1 3LW.

The Secretary of State accepted an undertaking from Mr Spencer that he would not act as director for a period of 10 years on 14 March 2017. The disqualification came into effect on 4 April 2017.

Mr Spencer’s date of birth is August 1988.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

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More than half a million Scottish jobs – around one in four – depend on Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK, new research published today reveals. That is more than four times as many jobs supported by EU trade.

The figures from the Fraser of Allander Institute show:

• around 530,000 jobs in Scotland (nearly one in four of all jobs) are supported by demand for Scottish goods and services from the rest of the UK;
• more than 175,000 jobs in Scotland are supported by export demand from the rest of the world; and
• around 125,000 jobs in Scotland supported by export demand from the rest of the EU.

Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell said:

More than half a million Scottish jobs depend on being able to trade freely within the UK. These figures demonstrate clearly the value of the UK market to Scottish businesses – which is worth four times that of the EU market. As we leave the EU, it is vital we maintain the integrity of the UK market and prevent any new barriers to doing business across the UK.

We have seen recent worrying figures showing the Scottish economy contracting, compared to the UK economy growing overall. So, at this time, it is more important than ever that Scotland’s two governments work together for the benefit of people in Scotland. That is what people in Scotland expect, and to what I am committed.

The UK Government is working closely with the Scottish Government to help boost the Scottish economy. That includes our new industrial strategy, UK City Deals and a £1.2 billion funding boost for Scotland.

Around two thirds of Scottish jobs supported by exports to the rest of the UK are in the services sector (more than 328,000 jobs), and just under one third are in manufacturing and construction (more than 150,000 jobs).

The new research confirms the importance of Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK, the value of which is worth four times that of the country’s exports to the EU. Scotland sells goods and services worth £49.8 billion to the rest of the UK, and £12.3 billion to the EU. Today’s figures show that more than four times as many Scottish jobs are supported by UK trade compared to EU trade.

The research, ‘Employment supported by Scottish Export Demand’, commissioned by the UK Government, is available from the Fraser of Allander Institute.

The Scottish Government paper, Export Statistics Scotland, published earlier this year shows the value of Scottish exports.

The latest Scottish GDP figures, published by the Scottish Government earlier this month, showed that the output of the Scottish economy contracted by 0.2 per cent during the latest quarter.

The UK Government’s Industrial Strategy was published earlier this year and sets out how we are building an industrial strategy to deliver a high-skilled, competitive economy that benefits people throughout the UK.

The government is announcing today the sale of the UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) to Macquarie Group Limited (Macquarie), with a £2.3 billion deal which secures a profit on the government’s investment in the bank, provides value for taxpayers and ensures GIB continues its green mission, in the private sector.

GIB has been a real success story since it was created in 2012 – the world’s first dedicated green investment bank, established to accelerate private sector investment into the UK green economy. It has fulfilled that mission, supporting almost 100 green infrastructure projects in the UK so far, and attracting £3 of third party funding for every £1 it invests. It has shown, as it set out to do, that green investment can be both green and profitable. Having demonstrated its success, the government decided to move GIB into the private sector where it can continue its success on an even greater scale.

The deal, secured through a competitive process as set out in a report to Parliament on 3 March 2016, will meet the objectives outlined by government of securing value for money for the taxpayer while ensuring GIB continues its green mission, free from the constraints of public sector ownership. It has the backing of GIB’s independent board.

Under the ownership of Macquarie, one of the largest infrastructure investors in the world, GIB will invest more into the green economy than ever before, with £3 billion of new investment targeted over the next 3 years, exceeding GIB’s track record of committing £3.4 billion of investment over the 4 and a half years since it was founded. GIB will become the primary vehicle for Macquarie’s renewable energy investment in the UK and Europe, allowing GIB to expand internationally.

Macquarie has today published a series of commitments over the future of GIB under their ownership, including that GIB’s green purpose and green objectives will be maintained. This is in line with the ‘special share’ in GIB to safeguard GIB’s green purposes, which will be held by 5 independent trustees who will have the power to approve or reject any proposed change to GIB’s green mission.

Macquarie has also committed to continue GIB’s investment approach, targeting investments across all areas of the green economy and across all stages of the project lifecycle, including the critical phases of development and construction. This will ensure GIB remains a specialist green investor supporting renewable energy investment and emissions reduction in the UK.

Macquarie is committed to maintain the GIB platform and brand, and to utilise the skills and experience of GIB employees in Edinburgh and London. GIB’s Edinburgh office will be home to a new revenue generating project delivery business providing services to the green energy portfolios of GIB and Macquarie in the UK.

The transaction value of around £2.3 billion ensures that on completion, all taxpayer funding invested in GIB has been returned with a substantial profit. This comprises proceeds from the sale of around £1.7 billion, with a further £0.6 billion of GIB’s current outstanding commitments which will be met by Macquarie and its partners, rather than by taxpayers.

As part of the transaction, a number of GIB’s offshore wind assets will be moved into a new offshore wind investment vehicle, which GIB will manage and hold a 25% stake. Investors in this investment vehicle will be long-term institutional investors Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 (MEIF5) and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). This type of transaction structure matches GIB’s existing approach to asset ownership, providing a mechanism for long-term institutional investors to invest in low carbon projects while ensuring GIB can recycle its capital into new green investments.

The government will continue to hold a £130 million portfolio of a small number of GIB’s existing investments. This portfolio will continue to be managed by GIB until these investments can be sold on in a way which returns best value for taxpayers’ money.

The government would like to put on record its gratitude to GIB management and staff, who have all played a key role in GIB’s success, and who have worked tirelessly and professionally to support the sale process while continuing to source and finance green projects across the UK.

The sale proceeds will be received on completion of the transaction, which is expected to take around 2 months. The transaction is conditional on certain regulatory approvals including EU merger clearance. Under the Enterprise Act 2016, government is required to provide a full report to Parliament on completion of the transaction.